


Hunting, A Tutorial

by TheDruidsMuse



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 19:59:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13395171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDruidsMuse/pseuds/TheDruidsMuse
Summary: A young mother has her life turned upside down when the supernatural chooses to make her dinner. She becomes a hunter and acquires a mentor that shocks every hunter she meets. Will she be able to stand up to the challenge? Or will she fail and leave her young boy an orphan?





	1. I'll Take Mine In Purple

My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest, which already felt like it was being sliced open because I kept pulling in rapid lungfuls of the cold night air of the North Carolina mountains. Adrenaline seared through my veins warming them and keeping my ass running through the forest.

  
The lack of underbrush was both a blessing and a curse. I was unhindered and therefore covered more ground but so was that… _thing_ that was after me and the bundle in my arms-my 2 year old son.

  
Maybe I had lost my mind. Maybe I hadn’t seen a second set of pointy sharp teeth descend over his human teeth. I would, however, like to mention that the bite wound in my shoulder oozing blood felt completely real. But who knows? Don’t mentally ill people believe that their reality is the REAL reality?

  
And so… believing that a fuckin’ VAMPIRE was after me, I ran. And yes, I realized that running from a super fast vampire NEVER works-be it in books, movies, or, hell!, even real life-but hey! I’m mortal and fear makes people do irrational shit.

  
I was running for so long that the movement, the pain, the icy/hot mixed signals that my body was sending to my brain had all became… monotonous... Could’ve been a few minutes, could’ve been a few hours. At this point, I’m giving it a shoulder shrug and declaring that it felt like eons.

  
Now… as all fear riddled creatures are wont to do whilst being chased by a predator that means to eat them-is that just humans?-my dumb ass found the tiniest of roots to trip over.

  
_Awesome. ___

____

  
Thus I hit the ground on my side, my child still tucked to my chest both confused and frightened. He babbled nonsense at the highest pitch ever and tears ran down his face. I couldn’t find the heart to comfort him, knowing exactly what predicament I’d found us both in. I paused- _WHY?! _-briefly to assess my surroundings, searching for any sign of the creature. I heard rustling nearby but saw no signs of movement around us.__

____

  
I did the next logical thing-that you never see in movies… sigh-and looked up. My heart froze for several beats and then punched my chest when it started back up. I can only imagine that it snapped out of the shock with an “aw, fuck, right. I’m supposed to be pushing blood. That bitch can deal with… _that_.”

  
The bastard was crouched on a branch nearly twenty feet off the ground and grinning so widely that his face looked to be split in half. His eyes were sharp, and bright, and so wild that I could see my own death in them.

 

“Run, little lamb.” His voice was deep but clear and the fucker was mocking me! He was getting his rocks off on this chase… on my futile struggle to survive this encounter!

  
Naturally, after being insulted by an undead asshole, I got angry. And among the fear sitting heavily in my gut and chest-anger was the LAST emotion that I thought I’d ever feel again. But there it was. And that’s where I done truly lost my damn mind and sealed my fate.

  
I stood up slowly, frowning, and never took my eyes off the damn thing. I became defiant! Insert shrieks of horror looking back!

  
Two words. I had a total of two words for my would be death taster.

  
“Fuck. You.”

  
I managed to spit out those words and my beautiful voice-beautiful only because of what it didn't do-managed to remain unwavering. To his credit and my relief, he didn’t immediately tear me to shreds. Instead he tsked, teasingly.

  
“Now, now,” he scolded in a playful tone. “My dinner seems to have gone all mouthy.” The insanity in his eyes flared but his full-faced grin shrunk to a smirk. “That’s a new one on me.”

  
My fear grew intensely, so did my grip on my son, and so did his terrified wailing.

  
_My poor baby_ , I bemoaned in my head, _please. Please_ , I begged every divine entity that I could think of: God, any and every god of every and any culture that my brain could supply me with on the spot, angels, prophets, my roommate’s cat Shadow-walker… everyone.

  
Oblivious to the thoughts inside my head, the creature leapt down from his perch and landed without a sound. I was momentarily jealous until my brain reminded me that he meant to eat me and my boy.

“What, little lamb, no reply?”

  
I drew in a shaky breath and unconsciously took a step back. “Is there any more to say?”

  
He took a step toward me. “Good point,” he said, flashing me another look at his dangerously sharp fangs.

  
I stumbled back a few steps. _Please, I need help!_ My back hit a tree, where my muscles decided was a good place to lock up. _Is this how I die?! Fuck me. ___

____

  
“I guess I should dig right in, then.” The monster shrugged, again, so casually that my anger returned.

  
“GO TO HELL!” I screamed as he lifted a foot to move forward and a white-I mean the brightest and most absolute white of whites-light engulfed the forest around me. The trees, the darkness, even the creature’s face all faded out in its presence until the light was gone.

  
Bright dots danced in my vision. The darkness returned and my eyes had to readjust. There was no noise around me. My boy seemed to have calmed down but wasn’t breathing heavily enough to be asleep. I found myself blinking rapidly trying, uselessly, to help clear my vision.

  
All the while, thoughts like _where is the creature?_ and _what in the hell was that?_ and _am I in more danger now? In less?_ On and on the panicky thoughts swirled around my brain until my eyes finally did adjust and I could see that I was… alone?

  
My muscles were still locked and tense when a hand landed heavily on my shoulder and, if at all possible, I became even more rigid. I sucked in a breath instead of screaming. Then, the sweetest of all the sweet voices descended upon my ears.

  
“You called?” the man asked as he slid into my view. He was no taller than I was… auburn hair, 70s sideburns, dark eyes, sharp nose, handsome.

  
I left out a relieved sigh, “you’re an angel.”

  
Now, I had meant this figuratively. I was so happy to see someone who wasn’t that creature that even the most unseemly of people would’ve seemed like a God-send in the moment.

  
“Correct.” The man said this so matter-of-factly with a hand pocketing, heel rocking nonchalance that it stunned me.

  
“Uh… What?”

  
“I am indeed an angel.”

  
“Um… What?”

  
Quite articulate.

  
I know.

He sighed. “Alright, exactly how far down do I need to break this down for your monkey brain, kiddo?”

  
That was it. Another insult. The anger snapped me out of the shock and, between the absurdity of that night’s event and the blinding light not a minute prior, I laughed… and laughed… and tears fell from my eyes, that’s how hard I laughed. The strange _angel _waited patiently for an inkling of sanity to return.__

____

“This isn’t funny,” I managed between sharp breath’s and bouts of laughter. “I mean, first I was being chased by what I was pretty sure was a fuckin’ vampire! Then this! Sure! You’re an angel!”

  
I took several deep breaths, realizing that my breathing had become slightly too erratic, even for a crazy lady such as myself. I looked down to my boy as I breathed and found him starring at me, completely and eerily calm.

Once I had calmed down, I asked, “an angel to my rescue? Riddle me this, my angel in shiny wings. Why would an angel come to _my_ rescue? I am one insignificant flea on a _mountain_ of insignificant fleas.”

  
He shrugged, “I was in the neighborhood. Heard your plea. Thought I’d check it out. I am not, however, rescuing you. I’m going to give you the opportunity to rescue yourself.. For a price.”

  
I cocked my head, intrigued. “Tell me.” And believe me, I was so proud of me when I sounded more confident than I felt.

  
“Feisty, I like it.”

  
I waited for him to continue and shifted my son’s weight in my arms.

  
“He’s gonna come back eventually and when he does… I’m going to hold him still while you cut his head off.”

  
I took a breath. “Of course, I am. Because that’s what crazy people do!”

  
He shrugged and two things appeared out of thin air with zero fanfare: a machete, in his hand, and a baby blue playpen. Why do I remember the color of the damned materialized pen whilst being overloaded with fear and adrenaline, you ask? Well, it’s simple, course: what if the angel decided to make said baby blue playpen disappear again with my baby still in it?!

“What’s the price?” I asked to stall having to set my child down.

  
“Oh! There’s a cherry flavored lollipop in your bag. I’ll take that.”

  
I reached down, fished the lollipop from my bag, the one I had been so looking forward to enjoying later, and handed it over without a second thought. If that one piece of candy really got me out of this then it was all worth it and I’d buy him candy everyday for the rest of my life if he asked. He popped the lollipop into his mouth and started to hum…

  
“The freakin’ jeopardy tune?” I asked incredulously.

  
“He’s comin’ back, kiddo. Put your boy down and save yourself.” The angel offered me the machete.

  
“This is so fucked up,” I breathed, setting my son in the play pen and taking the weapon. My joints were stiff from holding him so tightly for so long but I shook them out and took a deep breath.

  
“This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg, doll.”

  
The angel’s eyes began to glow bright and, when I turned, the vampire was only a few inches away, its mouth opened wide ready to bite into me. I flinched and nearly dropped the machete which seemed to grow in weight the longer I held it.

  
“Come on, kiddo, or this guy will hunt you til the end of your days. They never forget a scent.”

  
I pulled in another breath. _I can do this, can’t I? I mean, it stands to reason that the vamp also has my boy’s scent and, well, I can’t have him in danger. I have to end it._

  
“I want my straight jacket in purple, ya know… if I have that option,” I said then picked up the blade and went to work.  



	2. Carry On

In movies and books, cutting someone’s-well… _something’s _\- head off look and sounds easy. But it’s not… there are bones, people! Bones! So one swing isn’t gonna cut it. (Ha!) Try three or four _good _swings and one carefully place slice-with force!… so much force-between the vertebrae in the neck. Needless to say, I was covered in glick and nearly retching by the end of it all.____

  
But it was done. The head was separated from the body and I felt!… awful. I know… I know what I did was a good thing, right? I mean, there was one less human taste tester in the world, my boy was safe, I was safe, and all of the vampire’s potential future victims were safe. And I felt like shit.

  
Of course, being raised in a society where killing-even for a damned good reason-was seen as an unforgivable act will do that to you, I guess. But it was done. 

  
I turned back to the handsome angel looking for…guidance? Acceptance? Praise? Hell! I don’t know what I was looking for. And as I turned the creature’s bits burst into flames, lighting up the area like a beacon. I was so… wired? Exhausted? Done with this day? (How could things get any stranger?) that I didn’t even flinch.

  
“Now, it’s done, kiddo,” and the angel sounded sad as if he could feel the conflict in my heart.

  
“Ok,” I mumbled, nodding slowly.

  
My limbs started to feel like lead was being poured into them. I became aware of the scratches on my face, knees, and hands. Basically, giving in to the delusion, I accepted that the scary shit was over and the adrenaline slowly faded out of my system, leaving behind an acute awareness of all the aches, pains, and strains that I had gotten for my troubles.

  
I closed my eyes with a pained sighed. All at once, the machete disappeared from my grip, a finger touched my forehead and a satisfying warmth spread like wildfire into my body. When my eyes popped open, the warmth was gone, the angel was stepping back, and the vampire had burnt down to coals. I was no longer covered in blood and I felt better than I had in years. The angel had healed me and cleaned me up. I stared at him open-mouth until my brain kicked back in and I snapped my jaw shut.

  
“Thank you,” I croaked, my throat dry.

  
He shrugged and poked my son’s nose in a playful manner. “Take care of this little tyke, will ya?”

  
“Of course.” _He is my son after all. _I stepped forward, not really sure what I was doing-probably a surprise hug, if I know myself at all-but stopped. He was an angel… I wasn’t about to push my luck that far, yet. “You never told me which angel you were.”__

____

  
He looked up. “No, I did not.”

  
“That’s not an answer,” I told him, picking up my son and watching the playpen disappear.

  
“You didn’t ask a question.”

  
I froze in mid-adjustment, replaying how I’d asked him his name and damned if he wasn’t right. “True. I’m Seraphine-Seraph-and this is Zach.” I held out my hand. “You are?”

  
He took my hand and shook, a proper human greeting, and said, “Gabriel.”

  
My eyes widened. I’m not particularly religious but I was pretty damned sure that the _angel Gabriel _wasn’t just your average, run-of-the-mill angel… but a fuckin’ Archangel… but dumbass me had to confirm. My voice had shot dangerously into squeaky-toy territory as I asked him.__

  
“The one and only,” he confirmed, raising his arms up as if to display himself.

  
I had only two words for him as well. “Holy sh-”

  
My world spun. One second I was standing in the dark forest-the vampire having gone up like dry pine needles-and the next I was in my lighted apartment. Through the fog in my brain, I assessed my apartment. There was something off… something different if you will. I was slow to pick out the differences. 

  
Say like, the new red paint splattered on the walls or the new red couch pillows made of meat and bone and fur and human hair. The carpet, too, was streaked in a new browning red. 

  
“I… don’t…” _Understand, _I was about to say but really? I did and didn’t want to believe it. I took a deep breath and the air tasted like salt and iron… blood.__

  
“It seems that your vampire struck here before it sought you out.”

  
“Tiff…” I went numb but the boy in my arms, oblivious to the carnage around him, had other ideas. Zachary patted my cheek and pointed to his mouth.

  
“Maaa…” was the only bit of his babble that I caught.

  
“Gabriel?” Neither of us had moved an inch after teleporting into the building. “I’ll do anything…” my voice broke and the rest came out as a whisper with tears barely contained behind it. “Please… I can’t-” My apartment disappeared.

  
His voice was gentle when he said, “last stop, kiddo. Good luck.” Then, Gabriel-the freakin’ archangel-stepped back, knocked on the hotel door, and disappeared with the sound of fluttering wings.

  
Some time must have passed, a temporary short circuit or something, because when I lifted my eyes next, I was in a hotel room with two strange men staring at me. I blinked rapidly and shook the heavy daze away.

  
“Hey, lady, are you alright?” The one with the longer hair asked gently, his expression full of concern.

  
“I-I was brought here,” I sniffed and looked skyward. “I’m gonna end up in a loony bin for this.”

  
“Hey,” the man’s soothing voice came back. “Why don’t you tell us what happened?”

  
“An angel dropped me here,” I told them and got another pat on the face from my son. “I’m so sorry to impose like this.”

  
“No, not at all. Do you know which angel brought you here?”

  
“The freakin’ archangel Gabriel,” I whispered, realizing how insane I was sounding.

  
The second man, the one with the almost military hair cut, looked shocked at my declaration and I knew it was over… I had lost my damn mind. Until he said, “Gabriel? Are you sure?”

  
“Am I sure?” I started to do that kind of laughter that you hear from crazy people. I have to tell you, I was getting a little uncomfortable with the familiarity of the sound. “It’s what he said. Why does it matter which _angel? _A fuckin’ _archangel _airlifted my ass from a massacre in my apartment to a hotel in who-the-hell-knows what state after ‘rescuing’ me from a damn vampire by making me cut off its head my damn self. Does none of this sound the least bit insane to either of you?” I may have snapped… slightly.____

  
The men considered my question for a bit before military hair guy spoke. “No, sounds pretty run-of-the-mill for us, actually.”

  
“How do you know if you’re crazy?” I asked, tears threatening to break free.

  
The long-haired man with the soothing voice knelt by me, pity taking the place of his earlier concern. “You’re not going crazy, miss… uh…”

  
“Searaphine-Seraph,” I choked out.

  
“Alright. Well, Seraph, you’re not crazy and we should talk about this more but how about for now, we get you and your son some grub and we all get some rest? We can pick this up in the morning.”

  
“How many times have you given ‘the world is a scarier place than you thought’ speech anyway?”

  
His smile was gentle and sad, “Far too many.”

  
The morning offered no reprieve despite my many hopes that it had all just been a fucked up dream. I was still in a hotel in Michigan, the boys had told me, and it was over crappy food that military hair guy-Dean-had bought for us that I told the brothers my story. The taller one with the longer hair and soothing voice-Sam-was truly interested in my night of horrors with the archangel Gabriel, often interrupting to ask a question.

  
Finally, Dean rolled up his wrappers, saying, “It’s not right. Gabriel’s dead. Chuck even did the whole ‘there’s no time’ before he up and vanished. You know anything else with that kind of juice?”

  
“Chuck?” I asked them. 

  
“Yeah, uh…” Sam seemed hesitant to tell me so Dean forged through for him. “Chuck. God’s name on earth for a bit.”

  
“Of course, you knew God. I know an angel and you know God.” I concentrated on keeping my breathing even.

  
“I don’t know, Dean, maybe he spared the time before he left?” Sam asked.

  
“Ok, but what about Michael or Raphael? Wouldn’t Cas have mentioned if his big brothers showed back up in heaven?”

  
“Probably. Maybe we should ask him?”

  
“Nah. He’s busy. When he gets back.” Dean wiped his mouth and stood. “Until then we should figure out what we’re gonna do the Zombie mom over here.”

  
I stood abruptly and angry, “I am not a zombie.”

  
“Dean,” Sam scolded his brother then turned to me. “We know you’re not. It’s a lot to take in and process, believe me, I know. You’ve been through a trauma and that leaves a mark on everyone, including my bone-head big brother. And whichever angel came to-”

  
“I can draw him,” I told them defensively

  
“What?”

  
“The angel, Dean, I can draw him. Then you’ll know, right?”

  
“Uh… yeah.” He seemed surprised which gave me a bit more satisfaction than I’m willing to admit aloud. “You need anything?”

  
“Nope.” I got my sketch book and my favorite pencil from my bag.

  
A baby supply run, a diaper change, and an hour later, I had a rough but accurate sketch of the angel I had seen the night before.

  
“Yep, that’s the guy. “Dean smiled. “I liked him. He was a pain in the ass, tho-”

  
“Really, Dean? ‘Pain in the ass’? he trapped me in a time loop, forever watching you die, before he let me live out the next six months alone to hunt his ass down.”

  
“Yeah, good times. Back before apocalypse!Lucifer and Lucifer 2.0.”

  
Sam considered this then nodded and let it go.

  
“I need a babysitter and a bottle of vodka…” I told the ceiling.

  
“At least you have your priorities straight.” Dean commended.

  
Sam scoffed, “Dean, you’re not helping-”

  
“Et Viola.” Gabriel offered me a bottle of top shelf vodka, having appeared suddenly with the faint sound of fluttering wings.

  
“Um… thank you?” I said meekly, taking the bottle from him. Sam and Dean jumped to their feet in an instant, drawing weapons.

  
“Whoa. Easy there, boys.” Gabriel held his hands up.

  
“How?” Sam demanded.

  
“Couldn’t tell you.” He shrugged. “One minute I in the empty, the next I was lying prone on a beach on Florid-”

__  
_ _

  
“Wait! No! I’m calling bullshit, Seraph.”

  
I sighed. “You can’t ‘call bullshit’ on my story, Claire. It’s _my _story. He really said that he-”__

  
“No. I mean, the vodka.” She looked incredibly skeptical. “You asked and he delivered? I’ve met a couple angels, alright? One is currently living inside my dad’s meat suit and never, not once, have I gotten that kind of response.”

  
“Call Sam,” I challenged with a grin. “He’ll verify it, if you really need him to and I can even show you the bottle.” I dug it out of the bag at my feet and set it on the table between us.

  
“You could’ve bought that yourself,” she pointed out.

  
I nodded. “Granted. So go ahead call the Winchesters.”

  
She whipped out her phone and dialed Sam’s number. I could hear bits and pieces of what he said from where I sat. His response had been something like, “Are you serious? I’m working a case and you need to know about the vodka?” But he did confirm what I told her and her face showed her surprise.

  
“Wow, angel service, huh? What’d that cost you?” she asked after hanging up.

  
“So wait, you’re ok with the whole ‘I’ll save you from death for a fuckin’ lollipop’ but you can’t believe that the trickster angel managed to conjure a bottle of alcohol?” I laughed.

  
She shrugged. “But did it? Come with a price?”

  
“Like a ‘you’ll never get to live a normal life now that you’ve met me’ kinda price?”

  
Her eyes widened. “Wait. Did he tell you to become a hunter?”

  
I was pretty sure that if I told her that clouds were purple and elephants were orange she would’ve rolled with it. I stuck to the truth.

  
“Not so much. It was more a ‘I’m gonna leave this suggestion on the table. You do what you want’ sorta deal.”

  
Claire considered it then nodded and prompted me, “carry on, then.”


End file.
